Continuity and change in public policy and management

Contents: Preface 1. Theory and Method in Comparative Studies of Organizational Change 2. National Reforms: The Belgian and English Regimes 3. National Reforms: Hospitals 4. National Reforms: Police 5. National Reforms: Intersectoral Comparison 6. What Happened Locally? Hospitals 7. What Happened Locally? Police 8. Reflections on Theories of Change 9. Reflections on Doctrines of Comparison Appendix: The Brighton-Leuven Project References Index

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Continuity and Change in Public Policy and Management offers a major reconsideration of patterns in long-term policymaking and organizational change. Christopher Pollitt and Geert Bouckaert use international and inter-sectoral comparison to challenge some currently fashionable models of policymaking. Combining theory development, international comparison and original case study analysis, two of Europe's leading public policy and management scholars apply and develop some of the main models of policy change and offer a revealing long-term view of policy developments since 1965. Drawing on an extensive programme of elite interviews and documentary analysis they provide an integrated treatment of national and local policymaking in two major public services - hospital care and the police - in England and Belgium. This timely book addresses the 'paradigm wars' in public policy, arguing for a nuanced intermediate position that challenges the orthodox and the post-modernists alike. This fascinating core book will be highly sought by advanced students and academics in public administration, public management, government, comparative politics or public policy courses. It will also prove to be an important tool for students in police studies and healthcare management.